We are receiving a LOT of input from you, on the different questions. Keep them coming!
We can not re-send each individual input to the entire e-conference list, otherwise most of you will (rightfully) complain about too many emails.
So, I am “aggregating/summarizing" your input, combining different emails into one.
Each aggregated input email will have a title like “Q1.1/2”+plus short summary of content. “Q1.1/2” means this is the 2nd aggregation email on question “1.1”.
Indeed by “small farm cooperation”, we don’t just mean formal cooperatives, but also informal cooperation at any level (purchasing input, irrigation, planting, harvesting, processing, marketing…) - From the background document: "(Cooperation) occurs in a
variety of ways, ranging from informal collaboration with relatives and neighbours at times of high workload (e.g., hay harvesting) to farmer associations where farmers purchase production inputs, process primary products (like farmer-owned dairies) or market
their produce together".
We would definitively like to hear more from your experience on "formal" cooperative farming in India, an excellent topic to bring into the discussion during this e-conference. But there might be more: When I was last in Bihar (North India), farmers told
me how they worked together in a government-led cooperative banking system, including a cooperative credit system (and in which they also talked about a possible a crop insurance formula, run by this cooperative banking system)
2/ A view from Cameroon:
My name is Eyongetta stanley Njieassam. I am an agricultural researcher from Cameroon with interest in sound agricultural practice and sustainable livelihood in rural communities .
On question 1.1:
Small farm cooperation experience over the years has been carried out through family relationships or friendships between two or more households. It mostly take place during the summer holiday periods where children
are on holidays and which is the cultivation season. Here each household is mostly represented by mother and adult children who get into an "njangi" with either a next door neighbour or family friend or relative where they jointly work in each others' farm
at a stipulated number of hours. The idea is to put a labour force that can work in each persons farm. The activities carried out in the farm could include either clearing of bush, hoeing, planting, harvesting, weeding and the benefiting household provide
just food and occasionally drinks for the labour.
Today cooperation has emerged into "societies" youth groups and big meeting groups in rural communities some made of only females or males and other made of of mixed sex but of individuals of similar age range
whose objective is to provide labour in exchange for money in order to run their activities in the group and to be able to celebrate the end of year/cultural festivals with money raised through such activities. This has helped to increase the size of farm
and reduce stress and cost to farmers who wants to extend the size of their farms and has also help to transform peasants farming into plantation agriculture
3/ A view from Ghana
Hi, my name is Elorm and I work with Syecomp, a remote Sensing company in Ghana.
My observation is that small farm owners tend to collaborate a lot in most rural communities in Ghana. Most small farm owners are members of community farmer unions and tend to share information on training and financing opportunities. However, I've also
realised some prevalent elite capture (editor: “the momentum?”) thus preventing the full development of small farms.
Numerous cooperatives have been set up in Ghana over the past decade. Due to ease of registering Farmer Cooperatives and interest by development actors and Government of Ghana's agricultural policies, lot more small farm
cooperatives have sprung up to derive union benefits. However, most are structurally weak and (the) majority are now dormant in the absence of any external technical and/or financial support.
Additionally, some large commercial farm operators have taken it upon themselves to set up small farms cooperation so they can easily establish a better supply chain for their products. This seem more sustainable than
donor-driven small farm cooperatives.
(In the bigger picture): Not much has changed over the past 10 years with regards small farms in Ghana. Even with numerous donor support, there's marginal
impact and small farms remain stagnant.
4/ A view from Senegal:
more than 300 farms. This organization helps farms on a lot of things:
- Find subsidized inputs of quality and quantity
- Find financial and technical partners
- Facilitate the flow of products before and after harvest
- Defend the interest of producers
This organization made it possible to have several partners like PADEN (Ed: PADEN : Programme d'Aménagement et de Développement - see
http://www.paden-senegal.org/ ) — It trained and sensitized many producers on the misuse of pesticides but also the importance of local products for food security.
Humanity needs more production and avoid waste to feed itself in order to cope with food insecurity. Exploitation must play first and
foremost the biggest role.
Facilitator's input:
Ousmane: could you give some more information on how AUMN was set up (for instance, is it a cooperative, set up by the government?) - and from what you see: what have been the main advantages and challenges to
make AUMN work, in your opinion?